EUGENE, Ore. — A scary situation for two young boys after they drank a dangerous mixture of cough syrup and alcohol Monday.

The Eugene Police Department says both boys were hospitalized.

We sat down with the father of one of the boys. He’s deeply concerned about kids getting high on the cough syrup. He hopes by speaking out other parents will take notice.

A simple internet search for ‘Purple Drank’ or ‘Sizzurp’ and you’ll find a number of tutorials on how to make the cough syrup concoction.

It’s like a new epidemic and I am just stunned,” said James, the father of one of the victims. We agreed to leave his last name out of this story to protect his son.

His 13-year-old son and his son’s friend are the latest to try the cough syrup mixture with serious consequences.

Eugene Police found one of the boys unconscious in a ditch on a bike path near the Beltline.

“It’s very concerning to find a 12-year-old passed out on a bike trial and unable to rouse him. Then police came to James’ house looking for his son,” said EPD Spokeswoman Melinda Mclaughlin.

“I tried to wake up my son he’d open his eyes and look at me and then his eyes would roll back in his head,” said James.

Medics took his son to the hospital. On the way, the teen admitted the boys stole the cough syrup from a local grocery store and then mixed it with alcohol.

James described what it was like for his son to see his friend worse off than he was in a hospital bed. “He is hooked up a breathing machine and i’ts helping him breathe and my boy just broke down and said ‘I am sorry dad’. He tried to tell his friend he is sorry. I can tell it had an affect on him which is what I was hoping for by showing him. I wanted to let him know to keep this from happened again,” added James.

“Police are concerned that kids may do copycat and that’s why it’s very important for parents and guardians to lock that sort of substance up,” said Mclaughlin.

James says he would like to see it taken to even the next level. “I want to get the stores to put it behind the counter so the kids cant steal it so easily.”

His son has been released from the hospital. The other boy is doing better but was transferred to a Portland hospital.

Jamie says:

Talk to you kids. Start talking to them BEFORE you think they’re old enough to start doing stuff like this, because other people are talking and they’re listening.

Call their attention to news stories – like car wrecks that have the familiar line, “drugs and alcohol were involved”. Call their attention to celebrity deaths – like Corey Monteith – that are drug and alcohol related. Not to demonize responsible alcohol consumption, but to let them know that being irresponsible has consequences.

Let them know that drugs and alcohol react differently in a kid’s brain and body than an adult’s. Maybe they won’t listen. But maybe they will.